Imagine if I reported that a county commissioner was really a moonshiner and a polyamorous, devil worshipping, mob hitman with ties to international bankers set on taking over the world.

Well, actually, maybe I’ll start going with that. Hmmm, which one of you to pick, District 1 through District 5? Maybe I’ll put the numbers in a hat and pick one.
Absurd, right? Well, of course.

If I went that route, any local official would be in my office the next morning ready to throw punches — and rightly so. I would absolutely deserve the old knuckle sandwich. I would have it coming, right? To throw such absurdities into the public realm is not only damaging to that individual but to the public in general. If I could write fake news with enough specificity to give it an air of truth, then it would begin to stick. And the public would lean toward true foolishness. Public debate would be severely diminished. If I could make this happen in Madison County, if that became my goal, and I was successful, then I would hurt our community in a really big way, wouldn’t I? Because if you’re making decisions based on overt lies, then democracy is a sham at any level.

“Commissioner accepts bribes!”

Such a headline would be eye-catching, right? And if such a thing was true and I could prove it, then it would be solid journalism shining a needed spotlight on something dirty. But if I have no proof at all but spout it anyway, then it would be a form of misguided malice that has money or political motives at heart, not civic-mindedness. It would be a civic evil. It would be propaganda, not journalism.
Can you see the difference? Many can’t. And, even scarier, I don’t think a lot of folks give a durn one way or another. We have entered a truly bizarre age of journalism, where everyone with a laptop can essentially enter the journalistic fray and where truth seems less important than partisan allegiance. For instance, I don’t believe a lot of people are truly bothered if fake news hurts their perceived enemy. They’ll take it. If it’s not true, then whatever. It feels true anyway. And they hate so and so. The fake news may be ugly, but it will help their team win. So, they’re not bothered. In fact, I think many people will share clearly false stories because it feels good.
Obviously, there’s a lot of attention now to how fake news affected this year’s presidential race. There were fake stories circulated on Facebook and any attention at all to the fake news at the moment is inevitably seen as sour grapes from the left. I get that. Fair enough.

But forget this election cycle for one second — try to at least — and think about the bigger picture of information sharing in the modern era. Because that system at the national level is broken. And that’s not a partisan problem as much as a societal ill that seems destined to deteriorate unless we acknowledge it and fix it. Dirty tactics will be employed in politics by all sides aiming to grab power. I think there’s some agreement we can reach on that, because fierce power grabbing is dirty business.
But certain ground rules are needed, aren’t they? Without them, we move closer and closer to violence. And I’m sorry, but the proliferation of completely fabricated news is a move toward a nihilistic state of information sharing, where no words matter at all. If words lose all meaning, violence becomes the only language. And if that happens, we all lose.

Realize that the Internet is not governed at all by quality. It is pure quantity. We sometimes believe quality and quality are synonymous. But they’re not. If everyone is looking at something, then it must have merit, right? Well, no. Like I said, if I allege something horrible about a commissioner, I’m going to get more attention, way more eyeballs. But is this a quality move? Perhaps you think so if you hate that particular commissioner. But you can’t seriously say I’m helping society with fabrications, even if they’re politically effective in your favor. I may help you win a battle, but in the bigger war of good and evil, I’ve scored one for the dark side if I employ that tactic.

In my case, fabrications would land me a fist to the face. Or, at least I’ll have to meet face to face with my target, who will visit me fuming mad. But online, there’s no accountability. You can enter the game without the least bit of worry about your name, your reputation, your personal safety. You can create fake identities. You can create fake news sites. You don’t even have to be in this country. The most vile opinions get the most attention in comment sections. And the most shocking headlines get the most clicks, whether they’re true or not. In an emotionally charged environment, the ugliest emotions rise to the top and infect us all.
This needs to change.

And it needs to be addressed at several levels. First off, Facebook and other social media sites need to recognize their roles as the new gatekeepers of news. Newspapers, television outlets and other media organizations have been eclipsed by social media. When a person writes a letter to the editor in our paper and makes an assertion about local politics that I can confirm as false, I attach an editor’s note to the letter. I still let them have their say, unless it’s libelous, but I will add the facts of the matter, which can be verified. With Facebook achieving the status as a world arbiter of information, it needs to recognize its civic duty. It needs a vast crew of fact checkers — not necessarily to shut down fake news but to apply some journalistic rigor to what is passed off as fact. If fake news is disseminated, it at least needs a similar “editor’s note” applied to the bogus information. Right now, you have people admitting to making junk up just to get clicks. For Facebook not to address this matter is a real disservice to everyone. If you see Facebook establish a big team of fact checkers, then you’ll know they have some integrity. If they don’t, then it’s truly about profits, not at all about bettering and connecting mankind as they maintain.
At an individual level, I think it’s important to question any shocking news you get online. When you are stunned by something, try to act like a journalist yourself. Are there multiple sources backing up this claim? Does the story at least include quotes from the “enemy” side? Did the reporter at least make attempts to reach the person or organization targeted in the story? If there is not at least a “refused to comment” in the story, then you know they didn’t care enough to make the awkward, but necessary phone calls. And if that’s not there, then you better begin to question it, or you’re potentially getting played as a fool.

I can tell you this, if I ever had real evidence of a moonshining, polyamorous, devil worshipping, mob hitman of a commissioner, (my goodness, imagine those photos or video clips) that official would at least get a chance to refute it before it went to print. That commissioner would also see all of my evidence in person — every bit of it with a chance to address it. Not every outlet can take such a face-to-face approach, since there’s often limited access. But there has to be a real effort to confront a political target with evidence. Otherwise, a political reporter isn’t doing his job.
And if you fabricate “evidence,” whether you’re a reporter or a citizen, then you’re acting as a cancer on society.

The fact that I’m even having to talk seriously about fake news and propaganda shows just how crazy things have gotten. Let’s hope we can steer things back toward sobriety, not information drunkenness.

Good commentary. Our world has, indeed, become unimaginably bizarre. One possible positive is that it has revealed how very many people in this country are of low quality intellect. When I realize the massive amount of willing cognitive dissonance, dimwitted gullibility and emotional over ruling of reason going on, my emotional response is fear, fear of people, of the masses. My intellect immediately kicks in, but cannot make sense of it in order to know what to do about it other than to suspend any and all trust of all people.

It may be fake news, but the biggest purveyor of falsehoods is Donald Trump. A list of his falsehoods could fill a paper's half page. These low-brows ate it up! How did he manage to know the massive numbers of gullible citizens out there? Well, at least he revealed them so that we know we have a really serious problem.

Fair and balanced. Thank you. Though, do YOU read the obvious bias from your compatriots in the office. Sometimes, the truth is right in front of us.

A good example is from one of your respondents. "A list of his falsehoods",….. please share those with us.

"We have a really serious Problem". We do. 95 million out of the work force. 50% of 25 year olds live with their parents. Food stamp usage is at record highs. The U-6 unemployment rate is over 9%. We have over 20 Trillion in debt. We had one presidential candidate….

Yes, we have a "really serious" problem in America. I guess there are just to many "low-brow's" in America that can read and think…..outside the
P A R T Y ….line, on the unregulated internet. That's called free speech and is still constitutional. Thank you, God.

Ms. K., you appear to be losing it! You are quick to point out that the majority of us are low intellect and then you infer that yours is top quality. Perhaps withdrawing and suspending your interaction with people would be wise.

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